You Report, We Decide

RAND PAUL:“What I don’t like from the president’s administration is this sort of, ‘I’ll put my boot heel on the throat of BP.’ I think that sounds really un-American in his criticism of business. I’ve heard nothing from BP about not paying for the spill. And I think it’s part of this sort of blame game society in the sense that it’s always got to be someone’s fault instead of the fact that sometimes accidents happen.”

THE NEWS ROOM: The editorial board of Louisville’s Courier-Journal didn’t mince words following its sit-down with Rand Paul last month. Much of what the Republican Senate candidate supports, it wrote, “is repulsive to people in the mainstream,” including “an unacceptable view of civil rights.” MORE

RELATED: the Washington Post published a letter Paul wrote to the Bowling Green Daily News in May 2002, where he argued against the “Fair Housing Act.” In views similar to those expressed on NPR and MSNBC, Paul wrote that “a free society will abide unofficial, private discrimination, even when that means allowing hate-filled groups to exclude people based on the color of their skin.” MORE

MOTHER JONES: Last December, Rand Paul’s campaign communications director, Chris Hightower, resigned after a blogger exposed Hightower as an anti-Christian who believed that the US government was responsible for 9/11. The Paul campaign, asked by a local newspaper, if Paul agreed with Hightower on 9/11, said it was a “complicated situation” with “truth on both sides.” MORE

RELATED: During a July 23, 2009 show, Jones, decrying the Wall Street bailout, asked Paul, “This isn’t really socialism….Isn’t this more akin to fascism?” Paul replied, “You’re exactly right.” Later on the show, while Jones was denouncing cap-and-trade legislation (which he says could lead to “toilet paper taxes”) and calling for investigating Al Gore, Paul noted that should the climate bill become law, “we will have an army of armed EPA agents–thousands of them.” These EPA troopers, according to Paul, would be free to burst into homes and apartments to determine if they were meeting energy-efficiency standards. MORE

WASHINGTON POST: Paul was asked a straight Yes or No question: Does the Federal government have a valid role setting minimum wage? He declined to answer. Later on Stephanopoulos asked Paul if he would repeal the minimum wage. He seemed to say No but basically brushed off the question. And even if he is opposed to repeal, the question of where he stands on repeal — which is an impossibility — is separate from whether he embraces the core principles underlying the law. The pattern is becoming clearer and clearer: Paul simply does not want to answer direct questions about the proper role of the Federal government in regulating the private sector. He visibly bristles when asked to clarify his views on these matters. MORE

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